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Funny

It’s funny, the things we do to avoid certain people. You know what I mean. You’re walking through the supermarket and, spotting someone you’d rather not talk to, you jump into the nearest aisle and pretend to be interested in the displayed products even though you’re really looking out of the corner of your eye to make sure that person doesn’t walk by and notice you. And then you feel eyes on you because you’re the only guy in an aisle filled with feminine products. You look up and realize that while trying to fake interest in the products in front of you, you have been “staring” at a large selection of pads and tampons.

Or maybe, standing around at an event you see someone you want to avoid. Thinking yourself the stealthy type you gracefully glide through the crowd towards the door and mentally pat yourself on the back for an evasion James Bond would be proud of. That is, of course, right before you throw your weight into pushing open a firmly looked door. Why is it that people seem to never have both doors unlocked at the same time? They’re double doors for a reason, but maybe the reason is to make unsuspecting people look utterly foolish.

I am not saying any of the above situations have ever happened to me. But there are times when I just don’t feel like being friendly and outgoing.

Are physicians required to “put on a happy face” at all times? Do they have to be ever-joyful, always-friendly, bubbly people?

I sure hope not. Cause I sure don’t feel this way… In fact, most of the time I feel pretty drained, tired, sleep-deprived, and stressed out.

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Science-Based Medicine

This year I had a course called Evidence-Based Medicine. The point of the class was to educate us on how to use the medical literature to determine the best treatments. Medicine has definitely come a long way from bleeding patients as a form of treatment. Now, we have evidence to lead the way.

But I recently overheard my parents talking about drinking EPSOM salt as part of an alternative to surgery for removing gallbladder stones. The treatment involved drinking fresh-squeezed apple juice for a number of days, drinking a 1/2 cup of Virgin Olive Oil, and then drinking an EPSOM salt and water mixture.

The treatment is supposed to flush out your liver/gallbladder and cause gallstones to be excreted with your stool. The site Curezone.com has a page dedicated to this treatment with a list of the various different “recipes” for the treatment. (Click here to see the liver flushing page.) Oh, and for all the skeptics, the pages come complete with pictures of gallstones people removed from their own stool!

Well I was a skeptic. I realize I’m just a medical student. But the idea didn’t sit right with me. Then I found a website called Science-Based Medicine that contained an article titled “Would you like a liver flush with that colon cleanse?

The author, a surgeon, rips apart this treatment. If I were to paraphrase him: The treatment is absolutely ridiculous. You can check out the details at his post.

Even in this day and age, there are still plenty of strange treatments that are blindly followed without any evidence to support it. My parents heard about this treatment from a church member who was told that she had gallstones and needed a surgery to remove them.

I wish we could educate the public. Maybe a course on evidence-based medicine should be taught at the high school level. I mean, reading a site like the one listed above (Curezone) can be very convincing. You see all these testimonials by people who have “flushed” their livers. You see pictures of these supposed gallstones that were fished out of the toilet. And you think, hey, that’s proof it works!

I guess this was one moment where I saw the value of my Evidence-Based Medicine course — a value I failed to appreciate at the time I took it.

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Medical Tourism? Insurance may pay — MSNBC.com

Reference: MSNBC.com: Hip surgery in India? Insurance may pay

In the past few months I’ve been hearing about this medical tourism thing. It sounds really cool — maybe even exotic, doesn’t it? You go see the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world, and stop by the local medical center for a tummy tuck, face lift, and skin peel. It gives the notion of someone coming back with that “vacation look” a whole new meaning.

If you read the article, the American medical experts warn that this isn’t the safest option. They feel that the United States is the place to receive some of the top healthcare in the world (in terms of quality, not price). And I’m inclined to believe them.

It’s rather sad that so many Americans are forced to seek healthcare outside our borders. It just illustrates how badly things have become.

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Wal-Mart and Healthcare

I’ve been hearing a lot about these quick-stop clinics staffed by nurse practitioners. I hear about them in the news or read about them online. They seem to be on the east coast or midwest. Or maybe I’m just not paying any attention to them here locally.

As someone going into a medical career, this is somewhat discouraging. I don’t see how a family physician can compete against an NP based solely on costs. It seems like the scope of nursing just keeps getting expanded more and more. I’m sure the nurses are elated about this. And their paychecks continue to rise as they get more specialized.

I don’t think we need to go back to the days were the doctors were kings of their wards and nurses stood whenever one came in the room. But I do think that scope of practice of nurses and doctors cannot overlap too much. Because let’s face it, the nurses will always be able to offer their services at lower costs. And, more often than not, they (nurses) have less debt coming out of school.

Amy from RNCentral.com sent me this post titled 20 Surprising Ways Wal-Mart Clinics Will Affect US Healthcare. It’s a good read discussing the pros and cons of Wal-Mart entering the health service industry by opening up clinics at their stores.

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It Left Me Feeling… SICKO

SICKO
Courtesy of MichaelMoore.com

I guess I’m slow. I’ve heard that before. But I finally got to see Michael Moore’s documentary on the American Healthcare System. This was my very first Michael Moore documentary. I didn’t watch bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11.

Prior to watching this film I thought that Michael Moore was pretty obnoxious. Not that I’ve ever met the guy. He just came across that way to me. He seemed confrontational. But maybe you need to be that way to produce an effective documentary.

Throughout the film, Michael Moore introduces the audience to various Americans. We get to meet them and find out about their difficulties in the system of medicine that Americans seem to have accepted.

As a documentary about the atrocities of the American healthcare system, one would expect to see the negatives. And Mr. Moore does not fail to deliver. He presents one tear-jerking story after another and with his sarcasm points out how broken our system really is.

At one point he brings a group of Americans who have health problems resulting from their work at Ground Zero of on 9/11. These rescue workers had many problems that they just could not afford to deal with back home. Moore took them to Cuba where they were treated free of charge.

I consider this film to be an argument for Universal Healthcare. As an argument, I didn’t expect an unbiased view. Even so, Michael Moore did point out some of his critics. And one can easily find the opposing viewpoints with a quick Google search.

Without getting into a debate about the merits or pitfalls of universal medicine, I previously wrote that there are two entities that keep America from going the route of universal healthcare. Those two are (1) doctors and (2) Big Pharma. (see my post: Reforming the U.S. Healthcare System for more).

Overall, I think it was an excellent film for anyone interested in healthcare in America. Is it a good generalization of the state of things in this country? I don’t know. My mother had cancer a couple years ago and was very well taken care of by her insurance (not going to name them, but the founder is briefly mentioned in the film). Maybe my mom was the exception and not the norm? I just haven’t been in and around the hospital system to know. Nevertheless, the film does offer one viewpoint and its probably that we should take a look at.

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The Jimmy Legs

I recently saw an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It’s always an interesting way to get my news. But he did one segment which I’ve included below. Check it out.

I was gonna write about how surprised I am to hear that increased gambling was listed as a side-effect. But I figured that any way I found to convey my disbelief in such absurdity would kind of be overshadowed by Jon Stewart.

If anything, just remember to know what the side-effects are of any medication you take.

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Doctor Salaries, A Problem Overseas Too

In a previous post (Physician Salaries on the Decline) I wrote about declining physician salaries and how that is bad for healthcare.

I recently found a post from a medical student in the U.K. The system is kind of different there. He talks about the salary a newly graduated doctor would make out of medical school. Here in the States, I’ve found some residency brochures that advertise paying their residents somewhere between $45,000 and $50,000 USD.

Anyways, the post talks about how the financial benefits of a career in medicine might not be enough to entice the “cream of the crop” into medicine. And, the author points out, wouldn’t you want the best and the brightest to be the ones taking care of you when you’re sick?

From the post:

Where would you want the brightest people in the country to work? Would you have them making you money as stockbrokers; defending you in court as lawyers; writing your next headline as journalists; or would you have them saving lives as doctors? Most people would rank their health as one of the most important aspects of their lives, but is medicine financially attractive enough to entice the cream of the crop? I am not sure. In financial terms medicine might not be the best choice for the bright young future of tomorrow.

The post is at sBMJ – Viewpoint: Deterred by the doctor’s salary?